1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to traffic light detection systems and methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to identifying the state of traffic lights using a mobile device.
2. Description of Related Art
Blind travelers normally use the sound of traffic to judge whether a traffic light is green when deciding to cross a street. Building devices that can read traffic lights for one who cannot see is a technical challenge. Such electronic aids that can reliably announce the state of the traffic light typically require special-purpose hardware to be installed on traffic lights, and therefore such devices are often prohibitively expensive in the past.
Technologies that do not require the installation of special hardware on traffic lights have been used in custom built vehicles, e.g., the robot cars seen in the DARPA challenge that sense their environment when negotiating the city streets. However, such technologies typically rely on sensors. Such sensor-based solutions are likely to remain intractable on mainstream mobile devices. Consequently such solutions remain out of reach of the average consumer because of the high cost.